Queensland’s Audit Office has today tabled its Health 2025 report in Parliament, which summarises the audit results of the state’s health entities, including the Department of Health and 16 hospital and health services.
The report also summarises the audit results for 13 hospital foundations, five other statutory bodies, and three entities controlled by other health entities.
“We found that entities’ financial statements are reliable and their internal controls are generally effective. However, they need to take more timely action to resolve deficiencies in information technology access and security controls,” said Auditor-General, Rachel Vagg.
The Auditor-General said health entities are considered attractive targets by cyber criminals, due to the personal information they hold and the potential for profit.
“We therefore consider these access control deficiencies as significant. While management is working to address these complex issues, they need to take more timely action to resolve the deficiencies,” she said.
The report found emergency departments continued to not meet the 4-hour target to treat and discharge patients, as is the case with other states and territories.
“The performance of emergency departments also impacts on ambulance services, where time is lost due to delays in transferring patients from ambulances into hospital care. Queensland Ambulance Service response times are better than in other jurisdictions but still below Queensland’s target.”
Queensland Health referred more specialist outpatients for treatment during the year than last year, but continues to fall behind on its time targets, and the number of outpatients classified as ‘long waits’ has grown by 15% this year.
“Queensland’s population continues to grow and the number of elderly Queenslanders is increasing, which has a direct impact on demand for health services. In 2025, the public health system responded by providing an 11.7% increase in services – which comes at a financial cost.”
“We make one recommendation for hospital and health services, around developing a plan to manage conflicts of interest for board members who are employed as clinicians at the hospital and health service.”
The Office has published an interactive dashboard that allows users to search for hospital and health services and compare performance data. The tool includes demographic information for where you live, and data on revenue, expenses, assets, liabilities, and activity measures.
Read the report: www.qao.qld.gov.au/reports-resources/reports-parliament/health-2025, including a summary: report on a page.
